.Scientists have cracked the mystery of the gradual disappearance of the black sheep of St Kilda
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.j ... eep118.xml
Darker black sheep's decline is in the genes
By Nic Fleming, Science Correspondent
Last Updated: 12:01pm GMT 18/01/2008
YES you have to think laterally when Brat's on Holidays and the Forums quiet,
But this does relate- Bakes would no doubt be regarded as our current black sheep- but as with sports in general in this country the Balck sheep is declining under professionalism and the effects of the game being full time occupation.
Sheep living on an island off Scotland with dark coats are bigger than their fellow sheep that have light coats. This should make them more likely to survive the bitter Scottish winters and thus it might seem likely that dark sheep would come to make up a greater proportion of the woolly population.
But does this mean that eventually all the sheep will be blonde? Maybe not. It seems some sheep have one copy of the dark coat gene and one copy of the light coat gene. These are not as large as the dark sheep but not as small as the light sheep. They also have more reproductive success than the dark sheep, although not as much as the light sheep..
